John Punch (), also referred to as John Bunch, was an African-descended (and possibly African-born) resident of the English colony of Virginia who became its first person legally enslaved under its criminal law. In contrast, John Casor became the colonies' first person legally enslaved under civil law, having committed no crime.
Thought to have been an indentured servant with recent ancestry from present-day Cameroon, or possibly born there himself, Punch attempted to escape to Maryland and was sentenced in July 1640 by the Virginia Governor's Council to serve as a slave for the remainder of his life. The two European men who ran away with him received a lighter sentence of extended indentured servitude. For this reason, some historians consider Punch the "first official slave in the English colonies," and his case as the "first legal sanctioning of lifelong slavery in the Chesapeake." Some historians also consider this to be one of the first legal distinctions between Europeans and Africans made in the colony, and a key milestone in the development of the institution of slavery in the United States.Paul Finkelman (1985). Slavery in the Courtroom: An Annotated Bibliography of American Cases (Library of Congress). p. 3
In July 2012, Ancestry.com published a paper suggesting that John Punch was a twelfth-generation great grandfather of U.S. President Barack Obama on his mother's side, based on historical and genealogical research and Y-DNA analysis."Ancestry.com Discovers Ph Suggests" , The New York Times. July 30, 2012.Plante, Bill , Ancestry.com. July 30, 2012.Stolberg, Sheryl Gay "Obama Has Ties to Slavery Not by His Father but His Mother, Research-in-obamas-family-tree/ "Surprising link found in Obama's family tree" , CBS News. July 30, 2012. Punch's descendants were known by the Bunch or Bunche surname. Punch is also believed to be one of the paternal ancestors of the 20th-century American diplomat Ralph Bunche, the first African American to win the Nobel Peace Prize.Paul Heinegg, "Bunch Family" , Free African Americans in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware, 1995-2000. Note: Heinegg believes that Bunche was descended from Bunch ancestors established as free blacks in Virginia before the American Revolution. There were men of the Bunch surname in South Carolina by the end of the 18th century. Quote: "Others [of Bunch Family] in South Carolina i. Lovet, head of a South Orangeburg District household of 8 "other free" in 1790 [SC:99]. He lived for a while in Robeson County, North Carolina, since "Lovec Bunches old field" was mentioned in the March 1, 1811, will of John Hammons [WB 1:125].
ii. Gib., a taxable "free negro" in the District between Broad and Catawba River, South Carolina, in 1784 [South Carolina Tax List 1783-1800, frame 37].
iii. Paul2, head of a Union District, South Carolina household of 6 "other free" in 1800 [SC:241].
iv. Henry4, head of a Newberry District, South Carolina household of 2 "other free" in 1800 [SC:66].
v. Ralph J., Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1950, probably descended from the South Carolina branch of the family, but this has not been proved. He was born in Detroit, Michigan, on August 7, 1904, the son of Fred and Olive Bunche. The 1900 and 1910 census for Detroit lists several members of the Bunch family who were born in South Carolina, but Fred Bunch was not among them."
Context
Africans were first brought to Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. However, their status as slaves or indentured servants remains unclear. Philip S. Foner pointed out the differing perceptions held by historians, saying:
slavery existed in Florida long before 1619. the very first arrival of the Negro in 1619, was preceded by Spain in Florida. but others are of the opinion that the institution did not develop until the 1660s and that the status of the Negro until then was that of an indentured servant. Still others believe that the evidence is too sketchy to permit any definite conclusion either way.
Historian Alden T. Vaughan also recognizes differing opinions over when the institution of slavery started. Still, he says that most scholars agree that both free and enslaved black people were found in the Virginia colony by 1640, noting, "On the first point—the status of blacks before the passage of the slave laws—the issue is not whether some were free or some were slave. Almost everyone acknowledges the existence of both categories by the 1640s, if not from the beginning."
Life
John Punch was a servant of Virginia planter Hugh Gwyn, a wealthy landowner, justice, and member of the House of Burgesses, representing Charles River County (which became York County in 1642).Descent of the Bunch Family in Virginia and the Carolinas , Ancestry.com, July 15, 2012
In 1640, Punch ran away to Maryland accompanied by two of Gwyn's European indentured servants. All three were caught and returned to Virginia. On July 9, the Virginia Governor's Council, which served as the colony's highest court, sentenced both Europeans to extend their indenture terms by another four years each. However, they sentenced Punch to "serve his said master or his assigns for the time of his natural Life here or elsewhere".pbs.org Virginia recognizes slavery 1661 - 1663 In addition, the council sentenced the three men to thirty lashes each.Anastasia Harman, Natalie D. Cottrill, Paul C. Reed, and Joseph Shumway (2012). "Documenting President Barack Obama's maternal African-American ancestry: tracing his mother's Bunch ancestry to the first slave in America" , Ancestry.com, July 16, 2012.
Sentenced to life The General Court of The Governor's Council provided this verdict on July 9, 1640.https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/general_court_responds_to_runaway_servants_and_slaves_1640 , General Court Responds to Runaway Servants and Slaves (1640) Punctuation and spelling modernized.McIlwaine, H. R. (Henry Read), 1864-1934 editor. Minutes of the Council and General Court of colonial Virginia, 1622-1632, 1670-1676, with notes and excerpts from original Council and General court records, into 1683, now lost. Richmond, VA: The Colonial Press, Everett Waddey Company, 1924. Page 466. Original language. Internet Archive
Whereas Hugh Gwyn hath by order from this Board brought back from Maryland three servants formerly run away from the said Gwyn, the court doth therefore order that the said three servants shall receive the punishment of whipping and have thirty stripes apiece. One called Victor, a Dutchman, the other a Scotchman called James Gregory, shall first serve out their times with their master according to their Indentures, and one whole year apiece after the time of their service is expired by their said indentures in recompense of his loss sustained by their absence, and after that service to their said master is expired, to serve the colony for three whole years apiece. And that the third being a negro named John Punch shall serve his said master or his assigns for the time of his natural life here or elsewhere.
Three sources are cited in a 2012 article written by Jeffrey B. Perry, in which he quotes Ancestry.com, stating "'only one surviving [written] account ... certainly pertains to John Punch's life ... ' a paragraph from the Journal of the Executive Council of Colonial Virginia, dated July 9, 1640:"There's No Basis for the Claims that John Punch was 'Indentured' -- Or That His Fellow Escapees Were 'White , Jeffrey B. Perry, History News Network, August 6, 2012See also, "John Punch Wasn't the First Slave in America -- Just the First Slave in the English Colonies" , , History News Network, August 6, 2012
John H. Russell defined slavery in his book The Free Negro In Virginia, 1619–1865:
The difference between a servant and a slave is elementary and fundamental. The loss of liberty to the servant was temporary; the bondage of the slave was perpetual. It is the distinction made by Beverly in 1705 when he wrote, "They are call'd Slaves in respect of the time of their Servitude, because it is for Life." Wherever, according to the customs and laws of the colony, negroes were regarded and held as servants without a future right to freedom, there we should find the beginning of slavery in that colony.
Historians have noted that John Punch ceased to be an indentured servant and was condemned to slavery, as he was sentenced to "serve his said master or his assigns for the time of his natural Life." Edgar Toppin states that "Punch, in effect, became a slave under this ruling."Toppin, Edgar (2010). The Black American in United States History A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. said, "Thus, although he committed the same crime as the Dutchman and the Scotsman, John Punch, a black man, was sentenced to lifetime slavery." Winthrop Jordan also described this court ruling as "the first definite indication of outright enslavement appears in Virginia ... the third being a negro named John Punch shall serve his said master or his assigns for the time of his natural life here or elsewhere".
Theodore W. Allen notes that the court's "being a negro" justification made no explicit reference to precedent in English or Virginia common law and suggests that the court members may have been aware of common law that held a Christian could not enslave a Christian (with Punch being presumed to be a non-Christian, unlike his accomplices), wary of the diplomatic friction that would come of enslaving Christian Europeans, and possibly hopeful of replicating the lifetime indentures of enslaved Africans held in the Caribbean and South American colonies.Theodore W. Allen, "Summary of the Argument of The Invention of the White Race" , Cultural Logic
Significance In his A Biographical History of Blacks in America since 1528 (1971), Toppin explains the importance of Punch's case in the legal history of Virginia:
Thus, the black man, John Punch, became a slave unlike the two white indentured servants who merely had to serve a longer term. This was the first known case in Virginia involving slavery. It was significant because it was documented.Edgar A. Toppin, A Biographical History of Blacks in America Since 1528, New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1971. , p. 37
The National Park Service, in a history of Jamestown, notes that while it was a "customary practice to hold some Negroes in a form of life service," Punch was the "first documented slave for life.""African Americans at Jamestown" , Jamestown: History and Culture, National Park Service
Other historians have also emphasized the importance of this court decision in establishing a legal acceptance of slavery. John Donoghue said, "This can be interpreted as the first legal sanctioning of lifelong slavery in the Chesapeake." Historians consider this difference in penalties to mark the case as one of the first to make a racial distinction between black and white indentured servants."Slavery and Indentured Servants" , Law Library of Congress Tom Costa in his article, "Runaway Slaves and Servants in Colonial Virginia" says, "Scholars have argued that this decision represents the first legal distinction between Europeans and Africans to be made by Virginia courts."
Indentured status